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Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)
A privacy-focused, user-friendly, and secure open-source alternative to commercial home security systems. It emphasizes end-to-end encryption and ease of DIY setup for Raspberry Pi users.
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AI Executive Synthesis
A privacy-focused, user-friendly, and secure open-source alternative to commercial home security systems. It emphasizes end-to-end encryption and ease of DIY setup for Raspberry Pi users.
Secluso addresses a critical market need for privacy-centric home security, directly challenging the data privacy concerns associated with commercial smart home devices. The emphasis on end-to-end encryption (OpenMLS) and open-source transparency builds trust, a key differentiator in this segment. Simplifying deployment for Raspberry Pi users with a GUI tool significantly lowers the barrier to entry for DIY enthusiasts, expanding its potential user base beyond highly technical individuals. Reproducible builds and a minimal OS enhance security and reliability, appealing to users prioritizing control and auditability. The adoption of UnifiedPush further reinforces its privacy commitment. This project demonstrates a viable model for open-source hardware/software solutions that can disrupt established markets by prioritizing user control and data privacy, a growing demand in the consumer tech space. For B2B, this highlights the increasing importance of verifiable security and privacy features as competitive advantages.
Hey everyone,I previously introduced an open source private home security camera in 2024, which uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42284412.It was called Privastead then and it's now renamed to Secluso.John Kaczman found my project from here and has been working on it with me over the last year and half. We've made a lot of improvements to the software, which we would like to share with you:- You can now set this up on your Raspberry Pi in less than 5 minutes with no technical expertise using our easy-to-use GUI deploy tool. We've put together a comprehensive build-your-own guide that walks you through the required steps (you can find a link at the top of the repository README).- We use a customized, minimal OS based on the Yocto project for the camera.- Every part of our stack except for the iOS app has reproducible builds. This includes our Android app, camera/server binaries, deploy tool, and the aforementioned OS.- We've re-designed our mobile app, which is now on the iOS App Store and Google Play store.- We now support UnifiedPush for more privacy-preserving push notifications.Looking forward to seeing what you all think!
Related Ecosystem & Alternatives
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Deep-Dive FAQs
What is Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)?
Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) is analyzed by our AI as: A privacy-focused, user-friendly, and secure open-source alternative to commercial home security systems. It emphasizes end-to-end encryption and ease of DIY setup for Raspberry Pi users.. It focuses on Secluso addresses a critical market need for privacy-centric home security, directly challenging the data privacy concerns associated with commerci...
Where did Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) originate?
Data for Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) was aggregated directly from the Hacker News community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) within our tracked developer communities was recorded on May 30, 2026.
How popular is Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)?
Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) has achieved measurable traction, logging over 97 traction score and facilitating 21 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)?
Based on metadata extraction, Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption) is categorized under topics such as: open source, private home security camera, end-to-end encryption, OpenMLS.
What are some commercial alternatives to Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as YAGNI, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "Hey everyone,I previously introduced an open source private home security camera in 2024, which uses OpenMLS for end-to-end encryption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42284412.It was called P..."
Community Voice & Feedback
Paint point on most systems is the camera itself. Seems like every Chinese ip camera has some 'ecosystem'. Does you system use any cameras other than Raspberry Pi?
Why not release the iOS app in all regions?
This is great, congrats!Do you think it would be possible to use ESP32 (RISC-V CPUs) based cameras?Both for cost reduction and availability of the hardware reasons.Maybe with a ChaCha20-based cipher instead of AES?
Are there also open-source solutions without dependency on server in the cloud and that depend on internet connection? I am looking for a total home solution where I can communicate with doorbel through laptop with headset.
This looks like a great project at first glance. One thing I did not see answered was how storage is handled. Is there a way to view historical video (even an hour ago)?
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What wasn't immediately clear to me is that you're meant to set up Raspberry Pis with a Pi camera attached, and that serves as the camera device. This then provides E2E encryption directly between the Pi and the Secluso mobile app via a cloud relay service that just shovels the encrypted bytes.Contrast with https://frigate.video/, which is a locally installed NVR server that pulls camera feeds over the LAN (from a very wide range of off-the-shelf IP cameras) and does all kinds of really neat local processing to do things like (optionally hardware-accelerated) object and audio detection, face recognition, ALPR, semantic search over recorded video, and more — while still maintaining similar privacy guarantees.It's great that you've done reproducible builds for camera firmware, since that means you don't have to trust a shady IP camera vendor to be competent. Of course, with off-the-shelf stuff, you can largely avoid the security issues there by putting your cameras on a VLAN that can only reach your NVR.What I don't get is why there needs to be a cloud relay involved at all. If you're fully E2E encrypted anyway, just have the app communicate directly with the camera via STUN.I see you're planning on selling the preassembled hardware. There's definitely something to be said for "buy this device, download app, done" ease of setup for the wider market that meaningfully improves their privacy over Ring/Nest/et al. But for the power user and self-hosting crowd, I think Frigate makes a lot more sense.
Ah, the name is a near-miss vs https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php (the SECurity USability SOciety research group at Karlsruhe) that makes the "Privacy Friendly Apps" suite for Android. (I don't think there's any actual confusion, it was just a "why did that sound familiar" reflex :-)
I'm curious about the Yocto based OS. Can you tell us about the architecture? How small the LOC is and how much customization has been done if it based from existing stacks?
What's the difference between the hub and the server?
Discovery Source
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